Ishtar: On-This-Day Thursday
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Every Thursday, an older film released on this opening weekend years ago will be reviewed. They can be classics, or simply popular films that happened to be released to the world on the same date.
For May 15th, we are going to have a look at Ishtar.
Ishtar feels misunderstood, but that doesn’t mean that it’s still any good. I’ll start off by saying that Elaine May is a special kind of filmmaker, who could turn the quirky side of human nature either into comedy (Heaven Can Wait, which she co-wrote with Warren Beatty) or drama (the deeply fraught Mickey and Nicky, which just barely missed my list of favourite films of the ‘70s, and isn’t to be missed. Ishtar kind of feels like a combination of both worlds, with her humour changing the dialogue and events of the story, and her scope affecting the setting. Speaking of correlations, the cast and crew of Ishtar has a few more. Beatty also worked with May on his magnum opus Reds, and saw Ishtar as the opportunity to grant her a large scaled production that would put her on the map for good. Additionally, May briefly acted in The Graduate towards the start of her career, and here was Dustin Hoffman as the other leading man. It was like her career was about to come full circle.
While the film was being shot, May’s low-scale, comedy expertise clashed with the massive visions for Ishtar (clearly something that was more up Beatty’s alley), and the two butt heads: a director-writer who wanted to focus on the jokes, and a producer-star that expected something more grandiose. Additionally, Beatty didn’t want to overtake May’s job here, which his numerous fights with her threatened to make a possibility; he saw Ishtar as the brewing mess it was becoming, and knew that an extra credit as “director” would have been complete career suicide (since producer and actor could already do the trick). The end result is a film about a trip to the fictional country of Ishtar, and a bunch of creative minds who aren’t even on the same planets (let alone location).
Despite all of the big names and promise, Ishtar is the result of hidden objectives not meshing well together at all.
A lack of chemistry means jokes don’t land, and they are almost all complete misfires here. Zero excitement means that Ishtar’s size becomes boring instead of immersive, and this getaway picture feels like a complete chore. No joy or connection means any convenience or mistake feels unforgivable (take for instance the revelation of the ancient map, which may have felt euphoric in a more fun film like Raiders of the Lost Ark, but almost feels like a Deus Ex Machina in a film this tedious). Do I think a great film was present here? Not necessarily, but stripping away most of Ishtar’s body down to two poor souls who wound up in the wrong place and are fighting to figure their way out is a start. There may be something there. Unfortunately, too many of the wrong elements were stacked up on top of each other: forced comedy, convoluted extremities, and polar-opposites for ambitions. Ishtar is a well-intentioned film that is neither funny or exciting, so its upfront dialogue and wide landscapes mean next to nothing.
Having said all of that, I still think the film is hated on a little too much. The apparent claim that this is one of the worst films of all time is far from true. It just isn’t very good at all. Comparing its diabolical box-office results to its quality isn’t exactly fair, although its lack of ticket sales is indicative of its perplexing, confused tone; I also think the excessive over spending on set and in post production is what widened these margins even more. There is still just enough here that proves that this was a not-so-great film made by people who usually know what they are doing. The fish-out-of-water premise is a pretty good one done poorly (again, thanks to miscommunication). The location shots are really nice, but it’s the exhausting film that brings this photography down. No one is necessarily acting badly, but there is just zero understanding between all players. I don’t think Ishtar would have been brilliant, but it certainly could have been a hell of a lot better than this. Still, if you’re expecting a so-bad-it’s-good disaster, you won’t find that. It doesn’t belong to be mentioned alongside Battlefield Earth and Manos: The Hands of Fate. It may be better off amongst the other mediocre mistakes in film history by being not mentioned at all; at least it wouldn’t be undersold.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.